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Researchers receive $1.14 million to study threats to honeybees

By Sara LaJeunesse

April 4, 2014

Researchers receive $1.14 million to study threats to honeybees

University Park, Pa. -- Scientists in the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State received three grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation to study various threats to honeybees, including disease, pesticides and the extinction and invasion of other species into their habitats.

Investigating Disease

A team of scientists that includes Christina Grozinger, associate professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, will use a $467,000 grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture to examine and develop tools to mitigate the effects of a gut parasite, Nosema ceranae, that negatively impacts honeybees and has been linked to colony losses.

"Honeybees play a vital role in the agricultural system because they pollinate about 75 percent of our major global crops, including nutrient-rich vegetables, fruits and nuts," said Grozinger. "The microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae is widespread throughout the United States and the world. This parasite interferes with the digestive system and metabolic function of honeybees, leading to increased mortality of individual bees, which in turn can profoundly impact the social structure and health of the colony. This parasite is regarded as a key threat to bee health and has been implicated in alarming colony losses."

Grozinger and her colleagues, including scientists at the USDA's Bee Research Laboratory and the University of Kentucky, will use genomic and genetic techniques to improve the current understanding of how Nosema ceranae infects bees and spreads throughout their colonies. They will characterize the genes that enable this parasite to invade honeybee tissues, and use this information to develop specific therapeutics to reduce the parasite's virulence and the host's susceptibility to infection.

Poring Over Pesticides

Scientists in the Center for Pollinator Research will investigate the effects of pesticides on honeybees using a second grant from the USDA for $370,000,"Modern pesticide formulations, particularly when multiple active ingredients are blended, require proprietary adjuvants and 'inerts' to achieve high efficacy for targeted pests," said Christopher Mullin, professor of entomology. "Recently, we have shown that honeybees are unusually sensitive to organosilicone spray adjuvants and other coformulants used in agrochemicals."

In this project the team, which includes Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate, will analyze the presence and fate of organosilicone spray adjuvants and other coformulants in bee ecosystems. Specifically, they will identify common 'inerts' in agrochemicals and other environmental chemicals used frequently around honeybees or in their preferred foraging areas; develop analytical methods to monitor and determine the fate of pesticide formulation and adjuvant ingredients within bee ecosystems; determine acute and sub-lethal effects of pesticides, their formulation ingredients, important metabolites and relevant combinations on bee physiological and behavioral systems; and facilitate integration and communication of results to beekeepers, growers, pesticide regulators, the agrochemical industry and the research community.

"Knowing relevant environmental levels of adjuvants and 'inerts' would allow improved risk assessment of total chemical loads and exposures for bee pollinators and other non-targets species," said Mullin. "In addition, we anticipate that if 'inerts' are influencing pesticide levels and general hive stress, formulation recommendations can be optimized for use in bee foraging areas."

Examining Effects of Extinction and Invasion

A third grant, funded by the National Science Foundation for $300,000, will enable researchers to investigate the impacts of extinctions and invasions on community stability and biodiversity. The team, which includes Colin Campbell,postdoctoral scholar in biology, Katriona Shea, professor of biology, and Reka Albert, professor of physics and of biology, will model perturbations to ecosystem structure, specifically the permanent or temporary removal or introduction of one or more species.

"This model will allow us to assess which species and ecosystem properties contribute to the susceptibility of an ecosystem to catastrophic failure, and which contribute most tostability," said Campbell.

According to Shea, the need to address the impacts of environmental perturbations is increasingly urgent.

"The addition or loss of species to existing ecological communities can have far-reaching consequences for both the community and the greater ecosystem in which the community is embedded," she said. "For example, the recent, rapid decline in pollinator levels poses a serious risk to global agriculture and food security. This project will advance our knowledge of how these complex systems function. Only if we can anticipate the effects of environmental perturbations can we act to prevent or ameliorate undesired outcomes."